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Ministers advance bill allowing them to quit Knesset

The Knesset voted early Thursday to advance a bill that would enable a minister or deputy minister from each small party to quit the Knesset, but return if they leave the cabinet.

The bill passed in a preliminary reading by a 67-53 vote with the support of MKs from the coalition and Yisrael Beytenu. Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett praised the bill in the Knesset plenum, saying it would make their parliamentary work more effective but former Welfare Minister Meir Cohen (Yesh Atid) said it was a waste of NIS 7 million.

If passed into law, the bill would apply to factions of less than a dozen MKs. It still must pass multiple political hurdles to become law but if it does, there would be new MKs in Bayit Yehudi, Shas and United Torah Judaism.